I Can See Clearly Now A Sweep Is On...

Alright, I'm bored already with the Nationals. They didn't put up even a whimper in the Dodgers 5-0 shutout yesterday. The Dodgers are doing what they need to do this series which is to pound a bad team while it's down.

Grady Little made his choice of 5'th starter a little more clear via the L.A. Times that Hong-Chi Kuo will be the club's 5'th starter against the Pirates. Again I ask, why not Chad? What was Tomko doing as a starter that Chad couldn't? Billingsley had an era+ of 121 last season. He was the 3'rd best starter on the team in terms of era+ last season. Chad's knock from Grady and legitimately so is inefficiency. Sticking him in the bullpen is supposed to help that? How is Chad supposed to apply the apple strategy to the new orange situation? Did you get confused last sentence? Well, you're just like Chad right now.

Another great article written about our hero, Russell Martin. Reading it got me twitterpated. I liked this article better than the sports illustrated one over here. The latter making it seem a little like Martin is kind of an also-ran among the obvious great young catchers.


Lastly, word is that Schmidt did well down in San Bernardino in his rehab start, but various fans posting their scouting report of him say his fastball is in the upper 80's. Anyways, you can read a great article about Schmidt's rehab start done by Kevin Pearson of the Press Enterprise here. Here's hoping he's able to help us down the stretch when I'm sure some of our arms will be more than weary.

--Thanks for reading

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Game Preview: Battle of the Lefties

The Dodgers failed to capitalize on the struggles of Carlos Zambrano Saturday. They need to take advantage of another struggling Cub's starter, Rich Hill today to guarantee they at least stay tied for first in the NL west. Glad we're playing the Cubs instead of the Brewers like the Padres are doing. Should be interesting.

Russell Martin is hitting 3'rd this afternoon and as you can see by the splits he has been there before. This makes me happy. I hope Martin can make this spot his, regularly, instead of just waiting for Nomar to get a rest day. We'll see. A fan can dream, can't he?

Andy LaRoche and Brady Clark get starts today at 3B and RF respectively. We'll see how that goes. Both have done well in somewhat limited playing time this season. Not quite sure what to make of the combination of LaRoche, Betemit, and Abreu still unless the Dodgers are instituting a trial by fire to showcase their 3b talent for both themselves and potential trading partners. I'm partial to LaRoche even though he isn't hitting for power. Thank goodness such important decisions aren't left to me.

Enjoy the game!

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Bad Ohman!

Frustrating loss, though the Blue made a game of it. They didn't have the fight that they did last night. Carlos Zambrano's slider had the break one usually sees only in video games. Looks like the real Carlos Zambrano stood up and took the mound for the first time this season. Martin looked completely over-matched, but did manage a walk. Chad Billingsley pitching well in relief combined with another so-so Hendrickson performance has me thinking Chad may have won a rotation spot. Betemit hit a bomb that served as a whimper of protest and at least prevents the indignity of a shutout. They built up a little momentum which was killed with Kent's strikeout to Ohman. You can certainly question Little's move by pinch-hitting Kent for a guy that has a 4-6 record against the cubs' reliever. I did. But Kent is, as Vin would say, 'the butter and egg man'. He is the "clutch" guy, if you believe in that kind of stuff. Also, 6 at-bats is a small sample size, even for pitcher vs. hitter scenarios. So I'm not going to bemoan Little rolling the dice with taking a shot with the biggest gun in his holster, because that's what Kent was sitting on the bench at that particular time. It was entertaining to see Andy LaRoche log his first big league inning in left field. I imagined him pleading to himself for no balls to be hit his way. Better luck next time, Dodgers.

According to the Press Enterprise, Wilson Valdez cleared waivers and was sent outright to Vegas.

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Bobbleheaded Dodgers

Since yesterday was an off day and I blog a day behind and I don't want to bore myself with another post kissing Russell Martin's behind, I figured I'd make some content by dragging bobble-heads from their closeted boxes, laying them on a free Dodgers blanket and having at them with a digital camera. Why is Greg Maddux wearing a strange red uniform? The answer is he is dressed up in his high school uniform. You can't see the seat section colors in this picture but they are the old primary colors instead of the current pastel. No Unocal logo either, sorry. I really should e-bay these things because I never look at them.

In other news, I didn't read too much on the Blue this morning but by my calculation today is judgment day for soon-to-be old friend, Wilson Valdez. Hopefully, the Dodgers cut a deal (only because I like the excitement of a trade no matter how insignificant) instead of him being claimed on waivers and riding off into the not-as-blue sunset.

Tonight's game should be a win. The Dodgers have a good record against sub .500 teams. In addition, the Dodgers have that nice home record. But, anything can happen in baseball. D-Lowe will be doing the pitching and hopefully Inside the Dodgers will post the lineup soon and maybe spell out the fate of Valdez a little early. Hopefully Juan Pierre sticks it to his old team tonight. I think he will.

As for all the Pierre loathing that goes on at I'm guessing a ton of blogs, it's just not my bag. Some things in life are just too easy to do and pointing out what is lacking in Pierre's game is one of them. I'm not going to use keystrokes belaboring the obvious. It's like arriving at home and making sure you let your significant other know you know she's gained 20 lbs and that she no longer looks attractive. It's not classy if you truly love the person (team). Even if done in the most supportive way possible, if you still point it out every day it's going to get counterproductive very quickly.

Even if you don't believe a word of what I said in the last paragraph believe this: If Pierre is miserable here because of all the negative press or as I guess he would put it a 'lack of appreciation' for his game, he will request out. The Dodgers most likely will oblige him as they don't want anyone that doesn't want to be a Dodger. Wherever he goes, Willis will sign. The year or 2 of Pierre will truly be for naught if that's the way things go down. If you don't like Pierre, then you don't like Dontrelle Willis.

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Martin Always Seems To Have His Mitts On Everything

Unbelievable--In a good way, of course. Russell Martin keeps the good times rolling for the 'lil blue machine that could by smacking balls around when it counts like they owe him more than the major league minimum money that he's receiving. He is crushing rocks like he belongs on the front of my Cocoa Pebbles cereal box. O.K., I'm going a bit overboard. In short, he is driving in runs like a cleanup hitter right now. He seemingly wills the Blue to victory a la Gibson. I think he could be the first catcher to win the MVP since Munson in '76 for the AL and Bench in '70 and '72 for the NL. Now maybe I'm going overboard again, but I'm not so sure.

Unbelievable--In a bad way now, is I find it hard to believe that Martin will be able to keep this up without wearing down as the season rolls along. I'm still pretty apprehensive about it. He's carrying the team so much right now that Little almost has to keep playing Martin despite Grady's reputation for being the players' manager that doles out ample amounts of rest days.

I love this little guy so much I'm going to skip commentary about Brad Penny's great rebound outing, Yhency Brazoban's first MLB inning since TJ surgery, and not feel guilty. I'll have to be mentioning Martin a lot since he's involved in seemingly every Dodger run scoring play. HeHe...o.k. I just giggled like a schoolgirl yet still confident in my masculinity. You go, Martin!

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